nuances
by Dudly
Summary: No word is good enough to get through Atobe. But it's worth trying.


LOVE to awinchan and Apple Snapple who beta'ed this for me! :D What would I do without my forum people, God can only guess...

/ Really gen, but if you have my mind, you can see hints of Drama Pair (AtoShishi). But I'm twisted that way.

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**nuances**

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There was something wrong with Atobe Keigo.

It wasn't that he was sick, or that he was tired, or annoyed or annoying- it was something about the way he behaved, almost unseen by his peers but existent nonetheless. He could be weirder, of course; he often had been, but this time, they all noticed something different. One piece of information each wasn't much to come up with such an extreme conclusion (who dared ever say that an Atobe could possibly be wrong?), but when the whole tennis club combined their knowledge together, there was definitely something.

The freshmen, always cautious of their words and of their acts, had ironically started the whole debate. Ikku, a mildly talented player, had innocently commented on the lack of motivating speeches. "Bitchy speeches, you mean" Touji, a classmate of his, had corrected, when suddenly it occurred to the lot of them that the captain of the club hadn't complained or made a scene, or at least not with his heart in it.

That's when suspicions began to raise.

Many points were mentioned. Atobe had not flipped his hair, and had not smirked so smugly, although a lame attempt had been noticed by some. The number of laps had decreased and Jirou had gotten more sleep than he usually could.

"Not to forget that Hiyoshi bested him in today's match," Yuushi remarked.

Hiyoshi jerked from his seat. "I won because I surpassed him!"

But nobody faltered under his adamant glare. Yuushi shrugged. "Whatever."

"He hasn't referred to himself as Ore-sama at this afternoon's practice…"

Choutarou's insight caused many to nod, and a few to gasp like the situation had finally dawned upon them, but only Shishido scoffed. "So our local drama queen ceased to be such a diva. We should applaud in awe and be done with it."

"Shishido-san…"

Perhaps the tall boy's intent was to scold, or to indulge, but we will never know, for at this very moment, a lean figure entered the club house, thus stopping all chatter. His gaze held no glory, his shoulders were drooping, but no respectable Hyoutei student could disrespect him for so little. Atobe frowned, and as one they all stared elsewhere.

Except for Shishido Ryou.

Their relationship was a complex one. For years they were acquainted, but never friendly. A certain amount of trust linked them together, but they made sure to stretch the link by putting as much distance as they could between them.

Although, to be fair, whenever one seemed to be in trouble, the link acted like an elastic, quickly pulling the other back. It had done so when Shishido had been kicked off the team, and it was doing it yet again-- not that anybody noticed. Quietly, the rest of the tennis club resumed what they had to do and left the place, greeting their goodbyes with varying decibels. Even the regulars had decided that it was best to debate outside of Atobe's ear range. Kabaji gave a nod, to which Atobe answered with a nonchalant wave of the hand, and Kabaji nodded again before heading out.

Well. Atobe Keigo could push people out as easily as he could draw them in. How very interesting.

Shishido himself received an exhausted glare.

If glares could kill…

Frankly enough, if they could kill, the Shishidos would make thousands of millions of yen happily suing the Atobes.

"What is it that you want, Shishido?"

"Nothing much," came the disinterested answer. The capped boy eyed the dimmed version of the Hyoutei diva. "You're off."

Atobe laughed softly, startling his interlocutor a bit. "I'm awed by your insight."

Shishido's stare dropped to the floor. It was a gorgeous floor, come to speak of it. The wood was solid and shiny, its colour a deep red. Easier on the eyes than Atobe's tormented features. Shishido exhaled angrily. "I won't beg for explications."

"Don't." Atobe threw him a short look. "I don't do charity."

With that, the exchange was over, and Atobe moved towards the showers, hastily taking off his shirt and discarding it on the floor. The expensive clothes accepted its fate easily, and it seemed to Shishido like the wrinkles formed a kind of pout. Soon, the sound of water running reached the boy's ears and, before he knew it, he had decided to follow Atobe for further talking.

Heavens, if that wasn't proof of how irrevocably tainted he was by Choutarou's pureness… Raising his eyes to the ceiling (and what a gorgeous ceiling it was), he heaved a sigh. Fortunately, the showers of Hyoutei were appropriately separated into boxes, unlike many places where you could only find a row of showerheads.

"Is there a reason for you to come and harass me here?"

Good question, but wrong choice of words. Shishido flushed. "Who's harassing who?"

Through the water, an answer: "You are."

"You're naked!"

Why did the glaring fact came to Shishido at this point of the conversation is an obscure reason, and we shan't try to understand it. But that realization embarrassed the teenager greatly and he quickly took a step back.

The water flow ceased. "And you're stupid."

"I'm not!"

"You are. Pass me the shampoo."

"Between the two of us, you are the stupidest," Shishido countered, reaching the bottle and identifying without much surprise the same brand he used. Throwing it above the ajar door, he continued, "You came here expecting me to ignore your dramatic manners."

He smirked at the cursing of his friend. But nothing more followed. He frowned. "You stopped talking."

Well, duh.

"I wasn't talking. I was commenting."

It was a real wonder how tiny nuances could be of such importance to Atobe Keigo. It would drive Shishido crazy every time. He had many flashbacks to prove his point:

**Flashback One- **

"Who are you?"

"I'm an Atobe."

"Nice to meet you, Atobe-kun."

"We haven't met, I just told you my name."

**Flashback Two-**

"Why do I get all the work, Atobe?"

"You don't get _all_ the work, you only get my part and your part. My daddy said working was below me, either way."

**Flashback Three-**

"You said you were…"

"I meant _happy_, Shishido."

**ETC**

"Conditioner, please." The 'please' was to make sure that Shishido gave it in a correct way, he knew it. Atobe knew he knew it, for he added: "If you can't, I will go get it myself."

"You're naked."

Atobe laughed, the same distant laugh he voiced earlier. "Again, that is right, and you are indeed stupid, Shishido. Conditioner."

This time, the operation went along nicely and no cursing ensued. "But it's the last time I do something for you."

"Right."

Curse the overly long silence that befell them. It felt awkward, constricting, and so very wrong. To compensate it, Shishido was reduced to mindless chatter.

"You know, silence? That's a dead giveaway. You adore the sound of your voice."

A moment of hesitation. "It is true that my voice is more pleasant than yours."

That was a statement Shishido longed to refute. For the greater good, he bit back his exclamations of anger. Count to ten… One, two… Three… Fourfivesixeighnineten. "Spit it out already!"

And he had wondered why his mother had slipped a book about tact on his night table.

Atobe opened the water flow and raised his voice so that his response didn't drown. "It's a rather long story that I don't fancy telling to an imbecile like you."

Translation into Simple Atobe Truth: I rather fancy having a wall between you and me for such a story but if I stay in the shower my skin will wrinkle.

"Ever heard about summaries?"

"Shishido, have you ever heard about blackmail?"

"Blackmail me with what? It's so below an Atobe."

Another humorless laugh emitted; it gritted on Shishido's nerves so. "Right. There is this famous sentence that I quote: I don't want to talk about it." The water stopped. "Even girls can understand it sometimes."

"What are you--"

"Thanks for the thought, Shishido." It took a moment for Shishido's brain to stop the flow of his question that came along with an insult to assimilate the Never Heard From The Mouth Of Atobe Keigo Word. Before he could answer something nice on his own, Atobe added, "Now get the hell out. I can't stay in here forever and the towel is on the other side of the room."

The main thought Shishido had was that Atobe must have been really distracted to forget his towel over there. "What's the problem?"

"I'm naked."

Shishido finally left the washroom, with a small, distant laugh.

He vaguely thought that he would have come back on what he had said about not helping anymore.

He wondered what was wrong with Atobe.

He wondered what had happened, really happened, just there. They hadn't talked. Shishido knew what it was to 'open his heart' in order to feel better. He had done it with Choutarou, once or twice. Atobe hadn't talked. But he had thanked him.

So Shishido wondered. Maybe he shouldn't have tried to go and have a heart to heart. He was still a beginner. But it had felt right. That made him wonder even more.

When he got home, he shrugged off the concerns about the cause of his lateness and distractedly did his homework. Then he went in the game room to play on his new video game, offered by his uncle at his birthday.

His uncle had never played video games.

At this point, Shishido had more or less forgotten anything related to Atobe's troubles. He was more distraught by the lameness of his gift than whatever tragedy might be befalling Atobe Keigo. Surely it was irrelevant.

He turned off the PS3 and switched channels.

And that's when he fell on the news. And that's how he understood the depth of every word in the sentence "I don't want to talk about it."

That's when he learned about the death of Atobe Senior.

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**end**


End file.
